One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, at 6:01pm - in the height of the rush hour - the Interstate 35W Bridge (aka the St. Anthony Bridge) fell into the Mississippi River. Thirteen people perished - it could have been much, much worse. In the minutes after the collapse, Minnesotans of all stripes rushed to do what they could to help those trapped on teetering slabs on concrete, precariously balanced above and in the river. It was a stellar display of everything that we love about the people of Minnesota.

In the days that followed, many made political hay out of the bridge collapse - preferring to assign blame into the collapse before the bodies were even recovered, much less the official investigation begun. One of the first people out of the gate assigning blame was Elwin Tinklenberg, DFL candidate for the 6th Congressional District. Within hours of the collapse, Tinklenberg was in front of television cameras saying that the collapse was due to malfeasance at MNDOT.

Well a report just came out (in time for this somber anniversary) that sheds a little more light on the history of this ill-fated bridge.

One year after the structure collapsed, killing 13 people, the federal agency is still studying whether photos of critical gusset plate connections taken by inspectors in 1999 should have prompted MnDOT to take action, Rosenker said. The photos showed bowing or warping of the plates.

And just who was MNDOT Commissioner in 2000? It sure was not Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau...

Based on this article in the Strib, it appear as though Elwyn Tinklenberg said no to replacing the gusset plates on the I-35 bridge all the way back in 2000. Here’s what the Strib’s Mark Kaszouba is reporting:

Seven years before the Interstate 35W bridge fell, a consulting firm sent Minnesota officials a proposal to shore up the aging structure that included examining its gusset plates, the connections that federal investigators now believe likely played a role in the collapse.

The preliminary plan from HNTB Corp. of Kansas City, which was buried among hundreds of documents released at a recent legislative hearing, has gone largely unnoticed in the debate over the disaster. The company did its study at no cost in an attempt to gain a state contract for the bridge work but, in the end, wasn’t hired by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT).

A series of follow-up memos in 2000 and 2001 featured drawings of how HNTB planned to strengthen areas immediately surrounding the gusset plates and included renderings of “supplemental plates” and a “new oversize gusset.” Other drawings called for adding supplemental supports in the vicinity of the gusset plates.

This ECM article by T.W. Budig states clearly that Jesse Ventura named Tinklenberg as his transportation commissioner on January 6, 1999. HNTB’s memos were sent in 2000 and 2001, meaning El Tinklenberg had more to do with the I-35W collapse than did the various scapegoats offered by the DFL. Had Tinklenberg listened to the experts, there’s every reason to believe that the I-35W bridge wouldn’t have collapsed.

Elwin Tinklenberg, MNDOT Commissioner from 1999 to 2002. Now he says that he is running for Congress in order to fix the problems that "caused" this bridge collapse. It seems to me that Mr. Tinklenberg was presented the opportunity to fix the bridge back in 2000 and he declined to do so. Why should voters believe that Mr. Tinklenberg will fix the "problem" now when he didn't do it then?